GoHorseShow is sad to report the passing of 17 year-old Tickle Me Tailwind due to complications associated with colic. The chestnut mare by Mr Zippo Win and out of Scooters Ms Sandy was owned for 15 years by Select Amateur, Kathy Willeke of Adkins, Texas.

The team won a total of six AQHA World Show Top Tens starting in 2001. In 2008, at their first Select World Show, they were Reserve World Champions in the Showmanship in what Kathy called, "The best run of my life." The mare accumulated over 850 points over the course of her career.

"Tickle never quit trying for me. We knew each other so well and she knew exactly where and when to get me to scratch her belly. She would even show me where to scratch," Kathy fondly remembers. "She showed her appreciation by sticking her lip out and quivering and drooling. She would even return the favor by scratching on my back. She was my own personal masseuse. Mares are generally a pain because of the hormones, but she never showed her heat cycle. It was like having a gelding."

In 1997, Willeke was looking for a replacement to the mare she had just retired when she found "Tickle" from her good friend and breeder, Marilyn Henry.

"I fell in love with the two year-old instantly. She was such a positive learner that I got to where I could hardly wait to get to the barn to ride," Kathy recalls. "Trail was my favorite class so as soon as I had her going good, poles became part of her workout. In the meantime, I was missing the show ring so much that I worked on showmanship, too. We were back in the ring by the fall of her two year-old year and never looked back."

Being a teacher, Kathy's income didn't allow for her to have a trainer so she did the best she could on her own.

"Sharon Wellmann and Brad Jewett were so kind to give me lessons on the side when I could afford it, and Nancy Cahill's tapes were my saving grace in western riding and horsemanship," she says.

In 2011, Tickle spent the majority of the year fighting lameness from a hamstring pull. Kathy found herself at a show in San Antonio show in May trying to get her last two trail points to qualify for the 2012 World Show. Though the pattern wasn't a "Tim" pattern, she said she was so happy when she finished clean and soft. It was then that she noticed that Tickle was acting odd.

"I was waiting outside the pen for the results and Tickle kept looking back at her left side," Kathy explained. "She hated it when the sweat ran down her flank, so, I reached down and scratched her. We won under both the judges so our goal was accomplished. I went back into the senior trail, and she did a great job again. While unzipping my chaps, she started stomping her back foot," she says. "That wasn't right. So I jumped off her and she immediately tried to go down. We got her back to the trailer and gave her a Banamine shot and she was okay."

Kathy lived 45 minutes from the show facility, so she drove her home and kept an eye on her. Within 30 minutes, Tickle was showing signs again, so Katy decided to drive her to the vet. Unfortunately, she got worse, and at 17, with COPD (Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease--can be thought of as asthma for horses), it was decided that surgery was not her best option.

"At 3 am on Mother's Day, I had to say goodbye to my best friend of 15 years, and pray I had made the right decision," Kathy sadly recalls. "It was the worst experience of my life. But as I look back at our time together, I would not have changed anything about it. I have so many awards that she won for me and we did it as a team. I will take her memories to my grave. She is buried in our front pasture now and hopefully running in God's green pasture with all the great horses before her."

Photos © KC Montgomery